Red Dead Redemption 2is one of the most immersive video games in recent years. It’s very easy to get sucked into the story, characters, and universe. The game’s excellent writing certainly helps accomplish this. However, the immersion aspect is partially down to how incredibly detailed the environment and world are.

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Two characters speaking in a forest.

Whether you’re playing through missions, hanging around camp, or simply exploring, it really feels like you’re doing everything in the Old West. But the world isn’t all just based on a vague period of the Wild West era. The game is set at a very specific time, as we’ll explain here.

The first six chapters of the gametake place in 1899. To put this into perspective, this year would betowards the end of the Wild West era.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Screenshot Of John Proposal To Abigail

There’s no specific date for the official end of the Wild West, but most consider somewherebetween 1900 and 1916as the conclusion of that particular period. After all, the place truly stopped being lawless in 1912 when the last territories became governed states.

Thetwo-part epilogueof Red Dead Redemption 2 is seteight years after the main game in 1907.At this point, the West had become much more civilized than it used to be. As such, John and his family have to work hard to fit into the changing world.

Red Dead Revolver Promo Image Of Outlaw Firing Revovler

There have technically been three Red Dead games.

That being said, the originalRed Dead Revolver doesn’t narratively connect to the two Redemption games, and it’s debatable whether the title is even considered a part of the canon.

Another debatable thing is the time it takes place. The game doesn’t outright state what year everything happens, but it seems to beset in the 1880s,meaning the events of the gameoccurbefore Red Dead Redemption 2.

action shot Red Dead Redemption John waiting to rob horse buggy

Thefirst Redemption game takes place after RDR2and is mostly set in1911, with the post-credits content taking place in1914.

Thus, theWild West is far more civilized. There are still Western towns around, but there aren’t quite as many outlaws. In fact, getting rid of the last of them is the government’s main goal in the story.